2022 Cullen Diana Madeline

98 POINTS

Ray Jordan

Really delivers as you might expect from this excellent concentrated and powerfully framed vintage in Margaret River. It’s dominant cabernet with smaller portions of merlot, cabernet franc and malbec. Typical of this wine since switching to biodynamics, it is bright and brilliant with a nervy tense energy to drive the palate. The succulent fruit is harnessed by fine chalky tannins and neatly played oak of which 55% was new. A wine of extraordinary elegance and poise with many decades ahead of it.

98 POINTS

Ray Jordan - Winepilot

Really delivers as you might expect from this excellent concentrated and powerfully framed vintage in Margaret River. It is dominant Cabernet with smaller portions of Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Malbec. Typical of this wine since switching to biodynamics, it is bright and brilliant with a nervy tense energy to drive the palate. The succulent fruit is harness by fine chalky tannins and neatly played oak of which 55% was new. A wine of extraordinary elegance and poise with a life of many decades.

98 POINTS

Ken Gargett - Winepilot

Needless to say, Margaret River enjoyed another superb vintage with the 2022 season. Slightly cooler, Cullen report that it was a vintage of “immense perfume and texture”. This wine will be released early February to coincide with Diana’s 101 st birthday. The wine is a wonderfully vibrant purple in colour. The nose gives up plums, cassis, spices including nutmeg, chocolate, mocha, bay leaves, cigar box notes – think a freshly opened box of Cohiba Siglo VI – and near perfect oak integration. This is finely balanced and exhibiting immense length on a palate that sees the emergence of aniseed, mulberries and coffee beans. An alluringly supple texture with the silkiest of tannins, though plenty of them – there really is some grip here. This will easily sail through fifteen to twenty years in a good cellar.

98 POINTS

Huon Hooke - The Real Review

Deep, bright red-purple colour with a reserved, shy bouquet that leads into a similarly latent palate where masses of fine tannins lie stealthily in wait. Subtle violet and blackberry traces. There is tremendous depth and muscle to this wine but it is still a little in its shell and needs more time to open. Masses of tannin bode well for its future in the cellar. Decanting may work if broaching it young. (89% cabernet sauvignon, 5% merlot, 3% cabernet franc, 3% malbec. Aged in 55% new oak for 14 months)

97 POINTS

Jane Faulkner - Halliday Wine Companion

The best wines are distinctive with a clear DNA link to place. Diana Madeline is one such wine. An excellent deep purple hue with an ever-changing array of aromas: one minute spice, mulberries and cocoa when first poured, and next full of savoury notes of black olive tapenade, nori and menthol. As usual, it’s beautifully framed yet the fuller-bodied palate is plumped up by textural, expansive tannins and finishes long. Get a spot ready in the cellar, this has time on its side.

97 POINTS

James Suckling

An Australian icon. The nose is deeply perfumed and elegant with an underlying power, giving aromas of blackcurrants, mulberry bush, tobacco leaves, violets, blueberries and ferric earth. The full-bodied palate has seamless tannins and an incredible array of complex flavors: wild-blackberry compote, graphite, tea leaves, blood plums, dark cherries and mocha. A superb wine that will live for decades to come. Made from 89% cabernet sauvignon, 5% merlot, 3% cabernet franc and 3% malbec, farmed biodynamically.

97 POINTS

Erin Larkin - Robert Parker Wine Advocate

The 2022 Diana Madeline is a blend of 89% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc and 3% Malbec that matured for 14 months in 55% new French oak. 2022 was a warm but superb vintage in Margaret River, and the reds (particularly the reds) are ripe, fleshy, succulent and svelte. This 2022 Diana Madeline leads with pomegranate and raspberry, salted licorice, bay leaf and saltbush, and it even smells svelte. Superb. In the mouth, the wine has all the black tea, graphite, coal dust, cacao and nori that we have come to love and expect from this wine. I love the way it feels in my mouth, and I love the draw of flavor across the palate. No doubt this vintage will ignite the usual "I prefer cool vintages/I prefer warm" debate; however, I am on record many times expressing my favoritism for vintages like 2018 over 2019, despite them both being equally excellent wines. You go your own way; it's merely a matter of preference. 13.5% alcohol, sealed under screw cap. It's easy to remember the annual release date, as it is a shared birthday: Diana Madeline, 11th February.

97 POINTS

Cassandra Charlick - Decanter

Rather closed initially but opens nicely with a little encouragement to an elegant nose of wild berry, cassis, salted red plum, light nori, rock salt, and fresh rose petal, hay, dusty red earth. Fine graphite note, great fruit concentration, very tight dusty, yet firm tannins. Dry roast savoury spice, star anise, rosella and rose hip succulence. Tight-knit fruit quality with velvety effect across the palate. Such a core of energy – expansive and compounding rather than bright and preppy. Crushed graphite finish with an exceptionally long line of fruit. This has a long life ahead of it. Certified organic and biodynamic, 89% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc, 30 days on skins, 50% new oak barriques.